Thursday's Daily Pulse

What you need to know about Florida today

| 8/28/2014

Americans' pessimism on economy has grown

Americans are more anxious about the economy now than they were right after the Great Recession ended despite stock market gains, falling unemployment and growth moving closer to full health. [Source: AP]

Florida ready to challenge federal testing rules

Gov. Rick Scott is ready to take the federal government to court over testing rules for students learning English. The U.S. Department of Education says Florida must count those students’ results after one year in school. [Source: StateImpact Florida]

Commentary: Time to reform Florida’s broken medical liability system

In 2013, nearly 19 million Floridians paid up to $40 billion per year in defensive medicine costs so that 75 medical malpractice cases could go to a jury trial to compensate 18 injured patients. [Source: Palm Beach Post]

Florida Supreme Court asked to rule on gay marriage

A Southwest Florida appeals court on Wednesday asked the state’s Supreme Court to decide the constitutionality of Florida’s gay-marriage ban. The Supreme Court has not indicated when — or if — it will hear the case involving a lesbian couple married in Massachusetts but seeking a divorce in Florida. [Source: Miami Herald]

Inside the Dangerous (and Lucrative) Business of Alligator Farming

Alligator hunting and farming is big business in the southeastern United States. Alligator skin, which is sold for handbags, coats, shoes, and other mostly-fashion-industry items, is a $50 million industry in Louisiana alone. [Source: Inc.]

› What do five new hotels mean for Gainesville?[North Central Florida Business Report] It’s no secret that out-of-towners flock to Gainesville for fall football weekends and that hotel rooms in the Swamp vicinity get scarce. It’s also no secret that this town is budding with innovation and business opportunities, attracting more corporate travel.

› FAU chooses to be smaller, more selective[South Florida Sun-Sentinel] Florida Atlantic University has decided it's time to get better rather than bigger. For the first time in eight-years, the historically fast-growing university will be a little smaller, down 457 students from last year.